Lamhaa.....a film that left lot to be desired

‘Lamhaa’ arouses no curiosity in Jammu
Jupinderjit Singh
Tribune News Service

Jammu, July 16
“Kashmir is the most dangerous place in the world...?and the most beautiful also,” so goes the opening dialogue of a controversial movie - Lamhaa, which was banned in Srinagar and many Gulf countries. Despite the hype, the film witnessed a mediocre opening in Jammu today. Even the first day-first show was far from packed.

“And you can’t trust anyone here as well,” concludes Sanjay Dutt, the hero by the end of the movie, which though began with a promising note, ended without a whimper. The Rahul Dholka flick has raised the hope of being the “untold story of Kashmir”. But it says only the much-repeated assertion - Kashmir is being used by all to mint money and for their own political gains.

The plot woven around the hero, Sanjay Dutt, an intelligence officer, takes him around meeting and exposing many characters active in the Valley as well as in Delhi and across the border. It just says the separatists are playing into the hands of Pakistan but it is Delhi which can do whatever it wants in the Valley. This is a common perception in the state and nothing “untold and unknown” about it.

But will people outside Jammu and Kashmir understand the allegory, is a major

point. Many of the viewers today, who know the place, the people and the issue, failed to do so. Set in the Valley, the movie is shot in real locations with a panoramic view of the snow-clad mountains, the criss-crossing Jhelum, the Dal Lake and the crowded streets. But the images are too little and too short.

“It was an average film but there was nothing new which we didn’t know. And I feel it was a lot exaggerated. Also, what they showed was not limited to Kashmir. Such people and circumstances are prevalent all over the world,” said Anu Bakshi, a student sharing her disappointment.

“I couldn’t understand much. It was so confusing and fast-paced. It ended abruptly without any conclusion,” said another student Heena.

The characters as well as the story has been lifted from some real incidents in the Valley as well as in Jammu, especially where one young leader from the Valley organises a rally in the relief camp of Kashmiri Pandits in Jammu. But here is where the biggest goof-up of the movie happens.

The plot centres on some big plan of the forces in Pakistan to create a 1989-like lawlessness and pro-Pakistan or pro-azadi situation not only in the Valley but also in Jammu. There plan, which seems to be planned several months in advance, eventually turns out to strike at a rally, which was planned just days before!

“I think the movie-maker lost it there,” said Anil Suri, sharing his disappointment over the film. “The big attack being planned was the main peg - the main thrust - but it turned out to be nothing much.” Sanjay Raina, a Kashmiri Pandit, was not happy to see Anupam Kher donning the role of a separatist leader, “He knows the pain of displaced Kashmiri Pandits, yet he accepted the role of a separatist leader.”